School District Looks for Budget Solutions

Two weeks ago the Sarasota County School Board discussed a budget for 2012 that would . No specifics were given at the time.

On Tuesday, at the direction of Superintendent Lori White, the board received recommendations from the Salary and Benefit Reduction Committee for cut priorities.

The “top” recommendations included two furlough days for teachers, increasing teacher insurance deductibles by three percent and to freeze step and longevity increases.  

The board was divided Tuesday on the effectiveness of furloughs. Board member Shirley Brown is in favor of the furloughs, but felt the lowest paid employees (cafeteria workers, janitors) should not have to withstand those cuts.

Board Chair Frank Kovach said he would not support any furloughs. Throughout the budgets discussions, Kovach has been concerned with spending non-recurring dollars for recurring expenses. Now he said the board is making non-recurring cuts that will only make the budget problem greater next year.

“I voiced my concern on furlough days [before],” Kovach said.  “My concern, a third of these cuts is a one-year reduction. It’s not solving a problem.”

Brown said the only way to make recurring expense cuts  is to take things line-item out of the budget. She, however, said “if we can hold off those recurring cuts for one more year, I’m all for it. Maybe things we’ll get better,” Brown said.

The budget cannot be voted on until the state comes back with its budget and then the board would then take a vote at a regularly scheduled school board meeting.

Kovach said he is also aware of the time constraints of approving or rejecting a budget at this point in the year.

“These budgets need to go out and there’s not time to discuss these [much further],” he said. “They basically have to be voted up or down at this point. I don’t know what it is we have to discuss. I have real concerns, not real comfortable where we are going with our budget.”

What makes the budget trickier, a large portion of the planned budget cuts are dependent upon the Sarasota Classified Teacher’s Association agreeing to these terms in the new collective bargaining agreement.

White acknowledged this issue and said Sarasota County is not alone.

“Every district [in the state] is dealing with that issue,” White said. “We have to make some compromises terms of releasing the budget.

“I don’t know how any superintendent in the state will release their budgets for schools or staffing without some unknowns because the timelines simply don’t work,” White said.

Cuts to Schools

One of the major planned cuts would reduce 23 intervention teachers in all elementary schools.

District documents said cuts to intervention teachers would reduce the amount of time students with significant instructional needs will receive individual or small group instruction.

Potential high school cuts include, eliminating two of the three academic coaches at , eliminating three elective teachers at Pine View and eliminating two instructional positions at Oak Park.

For a detailed look into specific cuts and total savings, please check out the attached pdf.

Cuts, White said, are not exclusive to teachers and schools. Many personnel at the Landings and administrators across the district will be negatively impacted by the budget.

“Admins in this case where we have said your position is still in tact for this year, but it’s not likely for next year,” White said. “[We’ve] never had those conversations before.

“I don’t pretend to tell you we’ve got it all worked out,” White added. “We will be making very tough decisions next year because we [won’t] have the reserves available.”

In the 2012 budget, the current plan calls for the district spending $28 million from the general reserve fund. Deputy Chief Financial Officer Al Weidner said while the cuts have been tough for everyone across the board, the way it has been done is helping the district achieve its goals.

“I’ve been in the district since 1982,” Weidner said. “The way those cuts were done [before], the employee morale suffered so badly. I do not hear any of that right now. Morale is still high even though everyone is looking at their paycheck going down next year.”